RIP Ike Turner

[gvdub]

There are going to be a lot of articles about Ike that mention, first and foremost, his serial abuse of the women in his life, and I won't make any apologies for how bad that is, because I know about how bad it was directly from a friend of mine who used to be an Ikette. He also had lifelong substance abuse problems, treated his band like crap, and was, in a whole lot of ways, a pretty unsavory guy. Unfortunately, all of that overshadows the fact that he was one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock and roll. Hell, he produced (and probably either wrote or co-wrote, although like many other songs of the time actual writing credits are hard to verify) the song that is arguably the first rock and roll single ever, Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88". All those Howlin' Wolf recordings that came out of Memphis, for both Chess and Flair? That's Ike producing. A lot of the stuff that came out of Sun Studios during that same period? Ike again. Despite all his personal failings, the man was a musical visionary. That's the guy that I'm gonna miss – Ike the musician, songwriter, and producer.